The IIO says it's looking to speak with witnesses, some pictured here, to the fatal shooting

B.C.’s civilian police oversight agency is appealing for witnesses to come forward in the fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding suspect at an East Vancouver Canadian Tire last week.

If you were at the Canadian Tire off Grandview and Rupert last Thursday where the shooting and stabbing took place, Marten Youssef with the Independent Investigations Office says investigators want to speak to you.

“Regardless of the fact, if you’re a witness and you’ve spoken to the police, you need to contact the IIO. In terms of what our next steps are going to be, the forensic autopsy and the post-mortem are today, and obviously, it’s a critical piece to our investigation,” he said.

John Larkin, Chief of Investigations with the IIO, says what they are really after is cellphone footage of the incident.

“We are really stressing how important it is for those individuals, if you haven’t contacted us, if you haven’t been contacted by the VPD when they first attended the incident, please come forward with your details for us because it is absolutely important for our investigation to obtain as much evidence as we can,” he said.

The Larkin adds even if you’ve turned this evidence over to the police, it needs to be handed independently to the IIO.

38-year-old Daniel Rintoul of Calgary was killed by police after allegedly stabbing a store clerk before trying to steal firearms from a gun cabinet and taking an 82-year-old man hostage.

A store employee and police officer he’s accused of stabbing are recovering in hospital.